The answer is: so it can sell more robots. But also you can encourage individual entrepreneurship, as well as lower the cost of government services: "Shut down government programs as you fund redistribution." I think there's a point to that, and you can in fact count me as a supporter of a minimum income (and I for one welcome our robot butlers). But let's understand, this changes our economy, and changes what we expect from learning (read: the whole concept of education 'to get a job' or 'serve employer needs' is moot). And we need a basic income precisely because of increasing automation - it's unfair to force people to get a job when all the jobs are taken by robots. And that's why the tech industry is behind it.